You know, I've contemplated on the thought of why I never fully played the first game all the way. I did get around the few hours, but young Henry still had a lot to learn and adventures left to go through. After playing this, I probably shouldn't have given up on it.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is a seminal arrival of an already amazing game, created by the same guy who directed Mafia and Mafia II. It's also stupidly fun, like I never thought I'd be super invested in a medieval adventure game that captures the experience of early 15th century Bohemia. History buffs be damned, people who failed in history classes are enlightened greatly.
While it's not without some of the issues, some technical and probably design, the good parts trumps over them with so many myriads of activities. And it's not even at the difficult learning curve the first one had. I even lost track of time for the main quest.
Our stellar knight, Henry, and his liege, Sir Hans Capon en route to negotiate an allegiance with Lord Otto von Bergow. Ruler of Trotsky, things don't go well, and Henry has to make a few skill checks with the captain of Bergow's men to convince him they come in peace.
Of course, our rabble-rousers got bored, and wasn't content with the scenic view of the lake, goes for swimming and tries to peak on some village girls. Somewhere in the camp, bandits attack and kill all their men. Left them running in their undergarments and sneaking their way out, with Henry wounded, hallucinating, and worse of it all, the game playing tricks whenever I get lost.
A midwife nursed us back to health, and taught me even how to brew a potion. Wait, so in the span of two hours, I learned to sword fight, sneak around, do stealth attacks, second guess everything, do potions, and now have to deal with dialogue skill checks with vagabonds looking for us?
This is all happening too fast, and that's the intense quest line-up that I had to deal with much later on. I start off broke, Hans split up after causing an altercation in the bar got us kicked out, and picking up from the scraps, relearning everything I did from the first game. But through my experiences, I've come across some of the most outlandish characters out there.
It starts off overwhelming, every town requires me to explore and note down every establishment before interacting with the locals, and find some quests to do. Oh yeah, ah large pack wolves are on the loose, bandits sprawling through the land, vagabonds becoming death traps on the road. Then again, last game where I was usually careful approaching situations, here, I was bolder. Like as if Henry knew how to handle things better now, while being a fast learner.
Oh, you think combat is easy, I might have lost my mojo, but I sure as heck wasn't going to surrender to the bandits here, they'd rob me blind, steal my clothes and everything or kill me before all that. No, I ran my behind back to town and had a guard assist me. It's not so hard, but I forgot how to parry, instead was deflecting and striking in random directions. This was embarrassing.
The quests are also arduous, because of their developing stories. Even super careful about skipping dialogues. My first one involved finding a bear cub that a bunch of hunters were supposed to look after. Their lord regret killing the mother, and now the little guy is out there.
There's more. I stopped in the next town, and there's a fight club the tavern owner was inviting me to. I also had to look for my dog, Mutt. And on the way, I got killed by a thug, reloaded the savegame, and then stealth killed the douchebag.
The old lady who healed us, has her daughter Pavlona missing. It turns out, she was on a romantic trip with her lover which unfortunately became a bloodbath when a couple of guys working for the landlord who kicked them out of the village, killed her lover, and kidnapped her. She arrived safe and sound, and I couldn't catch a break, I was asked to deal with the village lord as well.
Oh, and there's more. There's a drunk lord hanging on to a tree while a pack of wolves were howling at him. God, I hate fighting dogs, they constantly bite, and attacking in groups only making things worse. He won't shut up, he's pissed drunk, and his horse gets stolen by poachers.
All this, while I was looking for Mutt. It took me looking around half of Trotsky to find my canine buddy. I barely had weapons, was strolling on my own in the land, little money, little food, I helped a sheep farmer, and he pays me in measly amounts for killing wolves. Does this guy not know Tetanus shots, and vaccinations don't exist? These quests are killing me.
But I did find my dog, he was temporarily going wild, probably hurt a few bystanders, but in the end, we had a face off with the wolf pack, and their elite. Bunch of scrawny ones, and my dog was a good attacker. My dog companion is the best. Now every miserable basterd coming at us will face his wrath. I've gotten pretty stronger too. Thanks to better gear, and new perks and skills.
A bartender in another town(man, it's always the bartenders) requested me to deal with the Cumans coming to the area, and starting crazy brawls. And to make matters worse, Henry doesn't like them since they're the ones who came and slaughtered his parents in Skalitz.
Man, I found these guys in a Nomad's camp, there's even Jews over there, and they seem nice? Hell, they all seem nice. Even the Cumans displayed regret when Henry confronted their leader. Next thing I know, I was getting absolute pissed drunk, and embarrassingly myself in front of them. But their leader was wise, a humble dude with so much bad history, that he didn't have much choice in life, considering the prejudices he deals with, he can't choose who he works for.
If I played the game longer, I'd probably show them what for, but no, Henry blacks out, goes swimming, and gets stuck on small islands before being rescued by them. And in the weirdest of twists, started speaking Hungarian too. Damn, that brew has magic in it.
And you know what, thanks to those guys, I had the worst hangover over the period of 2-3 game days. I was farting too, I have to watch for Henry's wellbeing, his sleep routine, diet, clothes, and every time he gets into a bloody fight, I have to clean up. No worries, I get practical with its realism, even with how aware the NPCs are. The many myriads of side activities out there, I even learned new swordfighting techniques, there are skill trainers that can teach archery, and much more.
A lot left to do, so far developing relations, and building up good reputation enough to be the talk of the town. Which, of course I can ruin anytime by doing all kinds of criminal activities. There's no illusion of choice, I can kill people left and right. Consequently, they'd had my head too.
Oh, I also got tired of walking everywhere on my own, some of the areas needing to be discovered before teleporting becomes possible. But soon as I got my horse, which I stole of course, traveling places has gotten super easier. Though, the lush, and varied geographical environment has its obstacles, I managed to trek far, and wide. I can even run away easier.
By the way, I haven't covered much of the main quest ever since, I still have to find a way inside the wedding before getting to Lord Bergow himself. The experience here altogether took me over a dozen hours. That includes the time lost to save scumming, and game crashes. But I'll be damned, I never thought I'd be happier playing a CryEngine 3 title.
The visuals look amazing, greenery, vegetation, and all brimming with high detail. The characters I meet are very colorful bunch across, with so much depth to them. Majority of quests deal with so many adult themes, and choke full of crazy moments too. If you can work around its limited saving system, tho. And you know, I'm not done fooling around either. That lord, and Hans will have to wait.
